Indian Summer Dressing with The DDOO Collective

Anyone else been quietly lusting over the clothes being worn in Channel 4s Indian Summer? I know Julie Walters plays a right old cow, but she does get to wear lovely swishy silk outfits. And those gloriously colourful saris! They all look so comfy and accommodating to all body shapes.

In another of those serendipitous fashion moments, I was introduced to the ddoo Collective recently, a group of smart, grown up women who’ve just launched a small range of easy-to-wear clothes in lovely printed silks, specifically designed for stylish, comfortable living which would look very at home on Indian Summer.

Dominique Lesourd, Catherine Marnata and Chrystal Saillard are all textile and design industry insiders who travel constantly and who have created clothes they felt would suit their busy lives. Clothes that were easy, great quality, interesting and adapted to where ever they were in the world. The shapes are based on global silhouettes such as tribal trousers, sarongs, kaftans and kimonos, all made in ddoo’s own-design printed silks.

The colours and prints are gorgeously rich. As Chrystal explained, “We have discovered -through our previous textile work- the very best artisan printers and dyers around the world, their skills are precious and in some cases being lost, we wanted to support their craftsmanship.”

The quality of the silk also makes the range stand out from the norm, we’re talking hippy-lux here really.

I was taken by the kaftan dress and the kimono coat, both of which would make you look wonderful in that fantasy you have where you waft along a warm beach at sunset…Or in real life they’d do very nicely as either a good summer dress or as an upscale, lux version of Lisa Taylor’s shirt dress, worn with jeans and a jersey vest for example, from last week. The kimono, btw, is lined in printed silk too, so is a real joy to wear.

The colours are super-saturated, classy brights, no garish hues here, and there are two print stories, The Garden Of Earthly Delights (the above images) and The Fire Fly Hunt (below),balanced out with some plains colours to mix and match with.

There are some lovely details in the fit and cut of the clothes, such as small ties on the sarong to adjust sizing securely and a thoughtfully placed slit for easy walking. The lined pieces are also fully reversible so you can vary the print on show. And videos to show you how to get the best out of the shapes. Prices start at £225 for the short Paro skirt, to £570 for the lined silk kimono and TWR readers are allowed a special 15% discount on all orders- see below.

The sarong skirt is also lined.

The range is available to buy mostly through the website here, and TWR readers can receive 15% discount by quoting WRB15 and is valid until June 15th 2015.